This blog post is co-authored with colleagues from Environmental Defense Fund, National Wildlife Federation, The Nature Conservancy and Ocean Conservancy. Today, as we weather the global COVID-19 pandemic, we’re reminded of another crisis that tested our resilience on the Gulf Coast. On April 20, 2010, the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, killing 11 people and spewing 210 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico over the following 87 days. It was the largest oil spill in U.S. history, and it wreaked incredible harm on the ecosystem, wildlife, and communities of the Gulf. Such a large and damaging spill necessarily triggered extraordinary legal action. The resulting record-setting legal settlements are funding what is arguably the largest ecosystem restoration effort in history. From the global settlement, $16 billion was directed toward restoration. More than $12 billion remains to be invested -- a process that will not be completed until 2032. Although an...